Health Care Bill Needs Fine Tuning

The most precious, and most perishable, possessions of the elderly are good health and dignity. When health fails, medical expenses soar. If savings disappear, so does dignity.

That is a serious concern, not just for citizens now 65 years of age and older but for everybody who will one day reach that age.

The U.S. House has taken an important step toward easing that concern. The Catastrophic Illness Insurance Act, passed by a 302-127 margin, makes major improvements in benefits for patients needing long-term hospital care as well as care in their own homes and in nursing homes.

The bill also provides substantial payments for prescription drugs and lays the groundwork for a bipartisan commission that would study comprehensive health care for people of all ages. The latter is, in effect, national health insurance.

That concept, which spooks the medical profession and many politicians, should not be used to derail the much-needed catastrophic illness protections contained in the House proposal.

The expanded Medicare coverage, according to its sponsors, would pay for itself through an increase in premiums based on income. President Reagan, particularly wary of the prescription drug clause, has questioned that contention and threatened to veto the measure on grounds that it could add as much as $7 billion to the federal deficit.

His reservations are not unreasonable. The Senate, which has yet to act on its own health care proposal, has dropped the drug coverage. If proponents can come up with reliable cost estimates, then prescription payments can be considered when the final version of the bill is put together in a House- Senate conference.

The campaign to protect the elderly from financial ruin brought on by catastrophic illness has been long and difficult. The House has produced a foundation for real progress, but much remains to be done.

No one should expect the task to be completed in one session of Congress. And no one, including the president, should talk automatic rejection without weighing their objections against the benefits of a program that will preserve the peace of mind and dignity of an ever-growing segment of society.